Friday, January 20, 2012

Wild Fan Closed Door Meeting

by NiNY

*SLAMS DOOR*

Enough. ENOUGH! Enough of this bullshit!

You lousy sonsofbitches. I bought in. Against my better judgment, I bought in. Sure it was a little devil may care. I've been buying in and getting my heart stomped on by Minnesota teams for 36 years now. I know better. Stupid, I know. But I did; so sue me.

And the truth is that, if you'd made it to the playoffs and gotten swept in the first round, I would have been okay. Elated. That would have been a win. Just staying relevant into March would have been a minor win. Justified me suspending reality and buying in.

But this? This is unacceptable.

Injuries, yeah, whatever. Of course you've had a lot and they've been major ones. It's how you deal with it. You're like a bunch of second rate politicians right now: talk a big game, shit the bed when the chips are down.

Where's your pride? Nothing. No pride or heart or balls whatsoever for at least the last two games. I do not accept that being decimated by injuries is an excuse for complete self-emasculation. Mikko and Butch and Gui are out, yeah. So why does that hurt you in your heart and your scrotum, Schultz and Zanon and Cullen and Heatley and Brodziak?

It's not losing I mind. It's losing when you don't play hard. It's losing when you don't give a shit. That's disgusting. That's pathetic.

And it falls to the Coach, too. Yeo's confidence can be inspiring. WAS inspiring when the team was just starting to figure it out in October and November. But now lines like 'I'm excited for the challenge of figuring it out' test my patience. I don't give a fuck that you're excited about doing it. How about you just do it?

And it falls to the GM, too. He is responsible for assembling this Tin Man group. He's not responsible for how they play, but he brought this team together, so he bears some of the responsibility. I don't want him to go out and trade prospects - I'd rather we just let the chips fall where the may at this point. I do want Fletcher to move our impending UFAs - even if we only get low picks back. Because, if we make the playoffs we're not winning anything anyway. So might as well load up on picks and send a message at the same time.

And here's the thing: I'm not quitting on this team. I bought in, I'm still in. I'm not a quitter. Even if they are. Ms. Conduct said on twitter that it was like the team was daring her to beg off, but she wasn't. That's what I'm talking about. I'm still expecting them to get into the playoffs this season. That's not to say I still think they will with nearly the same certainty that I harbored even a couple weeks ago. But I'm not altering my expectations.

In other words, not making the playoffs this season is going to be extremely disappointing. A failure.

But, from what we saw in Philly and Toronto, they don't care.

Okay, I'm off the soap box. This is a closed door fan meeting. What do you have to say?

You forgot to throw Zidlicky in there with the underachievers on the blue lline. He has yet to score his 1st goal this season. We all know he is WORTHLESS on defense. 'Offensive defenseman' takes on a new meaning with Zids. Yes, he has a no-trade clause, but he is a UFA after next season.

The Wild have averaged one goal -- 1 -- over the last 11 games. That is at best appalling; at worst, a flat-out embarrassment. And, subsequently, they have gone back to the 'We don't score goals; we only score pretty goals' theory of offense. Throw the puck in front of the net and let the forwards battle it out...

Will the Wild make the playoffs? I hope so. But I also hope for world peace, and free steak. And I don't see any of those happening soon, either.

Like Nick, I am becoming of the opinion that the Wild should be sellers at the trade deadline. Get what you can, for what you need to get rid of. Go into the stretch with all the dead weight jettisoned from the roster.

I'm just waiting for the day the Wild actually start taking lots of shots on goal. That was one of the big things Yeo talked about as being part of his "system" early on this season. And I've been shocked lately that I haven't heard him complaining about the lack of shots on goal. Or even lack of attemps. WRT is right - they're back to the old 'perfect play' offensive system. It's ugly, and humiliating.

I remember with Richards how he and Fletcher talked early on about having a "fast" team that came at you in waves. That really never happened. (Sure, some of it was probably the personnel on the ice.)

But now, I'm beginning to think even Yeo has lost sight of his goals for this team - the system he set out to implement. They wanted to be tough and hard to play against. Silky-soft, fuzzy-bunny, goo-goo-ga-ga - none of these feel good enough to me to describe how the team has actually played the last month +. I'm with you guys - it's frustrating.

POI

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Nick in New York (NiNY) is just a guy with a computer and a love of hockey. And a wife and two daughters whom he adores. And a decreasing ability to metabolize beer in a way that doesn't, er, add to the bottom line, as it were.

Feel free to toss him an email with any thoughts on the blog, or the sport.

Mason...you don't really want to mess with Mason. He's nasty with the writing skillz. And can drop some ridic culture pulls into his narrative. Lover of haiku.

Mason can be reached at: jaredmas@gmail.com

Did you know that no two zebras' stripes are the same? Well we have a zebra here at HTP, and his name is Doubles. Only he's a hockey zebra - and he's here going to share his great wealth of hockey knowledge from an on-ice official's standpoint with you. Feel free to read him in Chris Rock's voice.